McDonald’s adopted the logo made from two intersecting Golden Arches in 1962.
The logo transformed the arches from a physical feature of McDonald’s buildings into a compact graphic identity. Jim Schindler, a McDonald’s engineering and design employee, is widely credited with developing the familiar “M” arrangement from the two arches.
The arches had appeared on restaurant buildings during the 1950s, but their use as a standalone corporate logo gave McDonald’s a consistent visual mark for signs, packaging, and advertising. The design also helped make restaurants recognizable from a distance.
The 1962 date is often confused with 1952, when the architectural arches were introduced at an early McDonald’s building, or with 1968, when the logo received a later redesign. These dates describe different stages in the same branding story.